The Folklore Society’s Annual Conference 2025: “Folklore and the Senses”

Authors

Event: The Folklore Society’s Annual Conference: “Folklore and the Senses”
Venue: University College Cork
Date: 20th to 22nd June

Fiona O’ Driscoll, University College Cork

PhD candidate and assistant lecturer in the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, University College Cork (UCC). She also works as a course coordinator and lecturer for Adult Continuing Education (ACE) at UCC. Fiona’s doctoral research centres on the mostly unknown, yet multidimensional Irish ‘witch figure’, as evidenced through the oral tradition (c.1750–c.1940). With a particular focus on vernacular perceptions—fuelled by political, religious and sociological concerns—her thesis aims to uncover the factors which led to the construction of ‘woman as witch’ in rural Ireland.
Rebecca L Hall Moran, University College Cork

PhD student in the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, University College Cork. Rebecca is a 2024 Puttnam Scholar and a 2025 PhD Excellence Scholar. Her research focuses on exhuming and examining Kathleen Hurley’s forgotten contributions to the Irish Folklore Commission, particularly women’s lore, investigating her role and impact as a female collector, and restoring Hurley’s folklore to its origins in oral performance.